others do as activists and leaders, other than deconstruct and disassemble the
binary mythologies of racism and imperialism? Theory is the greatest,
indispensable weapon of the Left: it is Neo running loose in the Matrix, the
informatic One who symbolizes the proletarian solidarity of Hardt & Negri's
multitudinous All. The deficiencies of actually existing
theory/democracy/socialism require *more* theory/democracy/socialism, not less.
Aren't they just saying, well, given the onslaught of Mordor, our theories aren't that useful? We're talking about an academic system in which useful theories, ones that tempt you to act, just get you in trouble with the boss.
Reminds me of a talk here by Michael Hardt about a month ago. Of course the relevance of academic discourse came up (the conference was sponsored by the English Dept.) and one questioner kept asking some complex show-off question about the relationship between budget cuts and the development of theory and theories of revolt and on and on. Hardt looked blank. Finally, after the questioner tried again, Hardt just said something like, 'See, I think the disconnect here is that I don't think the revolution is going to come out of the academy.' You could hear the room sag.
Jenny Brown